WWII - Please meet Parkie, the young kid who made a man out of himself

[parkie]

Near ortona
That night I remember,like it was yesterday,all day German's have been strafing us heavily,Imean so bloody heavy it was a wonder there was air to breath for all the damm lead in the air.Men are gettting blown to bit's from the heavy rounds the german's are using,You thank christ for night fall,so you can't see the bit's and pieces of the boy's all over the bloody place,you know,All nightfall brought was darkness and the odd poor bugger that the med corp couldn't find,moaning in the darkness,nobody knows which direction to even begin to look even if you wanted to,and if you do go looking, the german's have sniper's in every damm tree almost,you know.stand up and just one little reflection off something on you,your dead!Something new for the boy's tonight,must be in honor of our coming,some sort of a damm mortar,fires off about ten round's so fast it will make your head spin ,you know.wam wam wam wam you know all in a row like that.when they come down they make the most god awful noise,you know.sounds like the bloody hounds of hell coming for you.I suppose they were the hounds of hell,killed so many of the boy's,that and chunks of wood as big has your arm flying in every direction,men getting pieces of wood thrown right through them almost,you know,god awful night that, men screaming in pain all night,you know.just bloody god awful.man crawls to you in the night,crying for help with two feet of wood sticking out of him,what can you do,you know.how can you pull two feet of wood out of a man's innard's you know,some tried,All you do is pull the poor bugger's intrail's out,god,bloody god awful!



                                                                                                                    A.C.(parkie)

 

[parkie]

for Joe.
he was a hell of a nice big fella,came from down in  southern manitoba,

The same day of the heavy mortar attacks. next morning snipers in the trees on the ridge are picking off men has men are trying to care for the wounded and get them out to where they can be tended to ,you know,german fighters still strafing us heavily,never a bloody moments rest,you know.just pour it to you steady.only now they started up heavy bombing again to go with the fighters.where the hell is the damm air support ,you know, caught on this bloody road,snipers giving us hell, and planes shooting and bombing us.you feel like a fish in the barrel,you know we had a small strip of bush to the side of the road,but Jesus it's like a shooting gallery in there to you know,and the german mortar crews have it ranged good.so you go in there.well.nobody wants to look like a bloody pincushion from flying chunks of wood,you know at least here there's a little refuge behind some of the small hills.I'll never forget to the day I die.We spotted a sniper in a tree about 50 yds off.Joe told me.I'll clank.when he pops from behind the tree,you spray the hell out of him with that Thompson.Joe clanked and before I could Even move.they shot him in the forehead. Rest in peace old son!!

                                                                                                          A.C.(parkie)
                                                                                                              PPCLI

 

[Hopkins]

Thanks alot for sharing Parkie...All of my Granfathers brothers and sisters served in Sicily and Italy...All coming back unfortunately as casualties (Not Fatalities) of some nature.

I Salute your service and everyone elses 

 

[parkie]

I regret to have to inform everyone,I can't continue with  dad's war diary,We were doing well ,until the entry that contained the event with the farmhouse,whatever happened there it has made a dramatic change in his state of mind.I noticed that entry's did not coinside with his recollection,because his good friend Joe that he often spoke of,died three week's before ortona and his other post's after that should have been week's before the Moro.I noticed that he isn't sleeping at night and he's up roaming the house.He wanted very much to do this for his PPCLI family in support of our soldier's.I have a small entry he was working on for his next post that he wanted me to enter.It is a piece from a song that the boy's use to sing in Italy,poking back at a 'lady Astor of the British  house of commons who said that they were the D-day dodgers.He couldn't remember all of it,,but here is a portion.

                    Forgotten by the Army,remembered by the few.
                    We had our armistice,when armistice was new
                  one million German's gave up to us
                  We finished our war without much fuss
                  we're the D-day dodgers,out here in Italy

  I thank everyone for the support that they showed him,he truly felt like a soldier again,and I do believe  he missed that for many years.
He is still available to message and such, I just think the way things are with him right now,I'll give him a rest from diary.

                                                                                                          For
                                                                                              A.C.(parkie)
                                                            Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry
                                                          1st Canadian Infantry Division 2ND Brigade  -  A title he  is very proud of       

 

[Fishbone Jones]

Thank your father for us, and thank you for helping him make a permanet record of this. We are all appreciative of his efforts and hope he can quell his demons soon.

 

[Kirkhill]

Many thanks, and like recceguy I hope he can recover his peace.

Cheers.

 

[military granny]

Dear Parkie and Family
How can we ever thank you..... My guess would be doing what we all do on this site, keep supporting the boys overseas and keep supporting each other. We are one big family whether we are PPCLI, RCR or any other regiment of the CF,or the families left behind or the older wiser Veterans.  

 

[JBP]

Every time I read a new entry from you parkie, it humbles me and shakes me to the very foundations of my being. Makes me question what I would have done in your situation, I don't think I would have had the level of courage you showed under fire like that, I guess that comes with time in combat but I'd probably have been one of those poor men scrambling around like a chicken with my head cut off I think, one never knows...

Thank you so much for your diary, it brings to light for so many of us what it was really like over there. Of course there's any number of movies to watch to get a good glimpse, but no one really has an idea what it was like for the average Canadian soldier over there, at least, they didn't until you started your diary. Again, thank you so much.

Now I can understand why some veterans never want to speak of the war, and the memories that plague them.

Thank you again and take it easy,
Joe
Proud and Thankful of the sacrifices made by you and all the Allies soldiers

 

[parkie]

Hello,
I would like to try and continue writing more, or at least speaking of the war if anyone would like to read of my experiences overseas, some of you have been following since we started writing this and I appreciate that you find the story interesting. I’m sorry that I can’t be more historically accurate from the point of a certain place at a certain date in Italy, It has simply been too many years. While there are things that tend to stay in a man’s memories it can be difficult to focus on where exactly they happened. I can see now that my mind is clearer that I have made a couple of mistakes.We didn’t really encounter much in the way of plane attacks until we got closer to ortona,Not that there was any shortage of other things flying through the air thar could kill you,Then they hit us pretty good for a couple of day’s, trying to take a bridge out there,That was where I lost Percy. Joe died before we arrived at the monastery, somewhere near Monte cassino we encountered German artillery and Infantry and he lost his life to a shot from a German sniper, one that I was to kill. And all my life I have had to live with that. He was a very nice guy, Joe was, He came from around steinbach Manitoba.His family was of a religion that did not allow them to serve in the military, but he didn’t think it was right, not to serve a country that sheltered them when they were fleeing persecution. He was a handy man to the army because he could speak fluent German, Russian and Dutch, I suppose that’s why the two of us ended up together because I could speak Dutch and Italian very well.
I wish that I had more of my experiences written down, but paper being has hard to come by has it was, it sometimes fell pray to other uses, I think you know what I mean.
  A happy thought of Joe comes to mind, The two of us were out on our own, And we had stopped to do our business, I can remember telling Joe ,I hope there was nothing important on that paper. and Joe replying to me “well, it’s just shi*ty info now anyways’’.We had a big laugh about that.
That’s how Italy was for me,land, lose a friend here and there,leave.with a few good fights in between,over time people have asked me, so you must have been at the Moro or the Savior rivers,well,I suppose I was,That must have been that place that was all blown to hell with the water running through it,or I guess it could have been that other place all blown to hell with the water running through it.I suppose after we left somebody was nice enough to go put signs up to give these places names.
If you want to hear more of my memories, let me know,I have more to share,with those who would like to listen.

                                                                                                                                A.C.(parkie)
                                                                                                  Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry

 

[Fishbone Jones]

Parkie, carry on please. We're all ears (eyes ), and again, thank you very much for allowing us to be the site that gets your permanent record and remembrances.

 

[Kirkhill]

What recceguy said parkie.

 

[parkie]

From letter(withheld)
Godstone England
Dearest Sister
All is well the day of this letter.Could use more food, but there’s only so much for everyone
The Germans have been bombing London very heavily.Flights of bombers seem to never end.The night is the worst,The sky glows from giant fires burning  just off in the distance.The roar from the bombing is deafening.We are only a few miles from London, They have moved us to a staging area here.
We dug a trench for the regiment’s biffy.We thought they were going to put in decent washes,but all they did was to put up one long sheet of canvas to the back of us.so the townsfolk all come by to watch the Canadians siting on the john’s and have a laugh,some even take pictures.So if you see a postcard with about thirty soldier’s all seated on the throne.I’m the one waving and smiling on the end.Two days ago I saw the most brilliant site, five planes coming down out of the sky at once all aflame.I can say for certain Olive that the Jerry planes take a terrible licking from the spitfire’s,When the bombers come over the spitfire’s swarm them,It remind’s me of when we were young watching ants attack something,They are all over them.There will be a lot of German plane parts for sale for those that want them, the countryside is a mess with what is left of the one’s that come down.Give my love to the little one’s and my love to all. Your loving brother
                                                                                    Parkie


                                                                                    A.C.(parkie)

 

[parkie]

From letter(sent)
Godstone England
Dearest sister
Can not say much only writing to tell that I received a package from home,days ago.
Our younger brother Chester.You can pick yourself up off the floor now.He told you he was going to work,cutting timber,but he went and joined up,can not say who he is with,but he is near me here,I’ll try to look out for him if I can.He is well now,but for a small amount of bruising from our first meeting.I will have him write you.My love to the little one’s unless they are on their way here too.

                                                                        Your loving brother
                                                                                Parkie

This letter was sent to Canada.You can Imagine my surprise to have my younger brother follow me overseas.He was fifteen years old when he left home,I don’t know how he got in,but he did.He tracked me down and came up behind me and grabbed me around the neck,I had him on the ground and half beaten before I realized who it was and it nearly floored me.I couldn’t be to mad though because he did join the Patricia’s to be with big brother.

                                                        A.C.(parkie)
                    Princess Patricia’s Canadian light Infantry

 

[parkie]

Things that one soldier will do for another,can quite frankly leave you just amazed.
My brother Chester or Cecil has we called him,contacted malaria on Sicily.He carried it with him for all of Italy.To make it worse he came down with dysentery.The doctor we had running our med unit was well known for being sauced at the best of times.And our medicine’s had become tainted from the lead stoppers on the bottles.So that men who were in need of medical treatment for anything from minor scratches to shrapnel and gunshot wounds were finding themselves getting violently ill and breaking out in large terrible sores from the tainted medicine.but getting back to what I was originally speaking of ,Cecil hung tight with five other boy’s in his company.Those boy’s carried him on a stretcher over half of Italy,because they would not trust the care of their friend to that doctor or the medicine.To some that may not sound like much,but I ran into them on about a half dozen different  occasions in Italy over about a six month period and they were always’s carrying Cecil, they would carry him until they were set down for the night and they would prop him close to where he could get to the latrine usually up against it.Mind you Cecil had a few good days,probably not many but some,but they probably carried him for two hundred miles maybe even more,and it was by no means warm weather  in Italy for much of it.I have always called what they did for him a testament to brotherhood.
                                                        A.C.(parkie)

 

[parkie]

Because of the type of things that Joe and I did, we ran into a lot of different people in Italy and we worked with some pretty, I suppose you might call, interesting folk. but wherever we were and whatever we were doing, Joe always tried to make room for the children that were left absolutely lost by what the German’s and Mussolini had done to their country. he was always bringing in little one’s to our little two man camp and trying to feed them some of whatever we had,usually not much,but still more than what the poor little buggers were getting.
We happened on four of Mussolini’s henchmen, At the time they were called black shirts.although when the dictator was losing grasp of his little shop of horrors he was running,his thugs simply evaporated into the civilian population and they did terrible things to their own people.The four we happened on had killed an entire family.but for a girl maybe in her early teens and a boy about eight to ten,they had tied the boy and were making him watch has they raped his young sister.They didn’t hear us come up on them,And they never heard anything again.I take great pleasure from that to this day.
Anyway this was the one time when our help was paid back hugely to us. The children had a grandmother not far away and when we took the little one’s to her and they told her what we had done, she fed us like king’s, It may have only been a type of spaghetti with a goat cheese grated on top. But we knew that to these people we were being given what they themselves couldn’t afford to eat. It was one of the best things I have ever eaten.wether it was the meal itself or how we had earned it. I will never forget it.

                                                                          A.C.(parkie)

 

[military granny]

Parkie nice to see back with us. Your memories of WWII enlighten all of us.

 

[parkie]

This is a joke  that got passed around overseas in England during the war, that the boy’s use to get a big laugh out of.
Sergeant McGhee was the toughest gut breaker there was when it came to drill instructors.
Last time out he was giving us instruction on the use of hand grenades.
‘’Right then Lads’’He barked ‘’The most important thing to remember is…’’
But he gets cut short by a green recruit in the back. “ya,okay sergeant I already know all this stuff when am I going to get to kill a german.”
McGhee held back a bit. “just hold on lad and let me finish what I was going to say, Right, Then like I was saying the most important thing with hand grenades is after you pull the pin you count to..”
But again the recruit cuts him off “Ya ,okay sergeant ,but your just wasting your time because I know everything there is to know about grendes.Now when am I going to get to kill something’’
McGhee lost it  “Right then, my boy.I can see you know just about all there is about grenades,So you just take this one,pull the pin ,count to eight and throw it,And you’ll be done for the day’’
Well the recruit just jumps right up,snatches the grenade out of McGhees hand ‘Watch this McGhee’’ .he yards the pin out,and stands there counting 1..2..3..4.5..6..7..8 Blam!!
The recruit disappears in a thousand pieces.
‘’Right then lads’’says McGhee. “Like I was saying,the most important thing about hand grenades is after you pull the pin and count to four,throw the dam thing’’


                                                                                        A.C.(parkie)

 

[parkie]

we have a long series of entries from my diary in Italy,We will copy directly to here,I think you will find them interesting.


From diary –Italy

Has I write,am cold,wet,and hungry.Last night got sent out on recover or destroy.we arrived the truck was not possible to recover.driver had taken wrong road and got hung up over blown bridge with half- full munition’s load.Truck was shot up by German patrols from across river. We could hear talk,coming from across the river,We made decision to try and blow the truck.we pulled pins on a dozen grenades,not one went off.
  Returned and burned the truck.Must have had a large patrol across river,when tank blew all hell broke loose from across bank.They were waiting for  someone to come for the truck.recovered body from the site. Dead from head wound.


                                                                                                                            A.C.(parkie)

 

[parkie]

From Diary.Italy #1


Last two days they have us in a holding area. We sleep in the graveyard for the local area
Everyone put above ground here.most horrible smell.  Large beetles crawling out of the grave sites and into our food  and clothing. Men are having trouble eating.There are many  fresh graves here.many children around half dressed and hungry.No word from Sicily or Cecil. Miss home and wife.

                                                                                                        A.C.(parkie)

 

[parkie]

Most From diary.Italy#2

Men getting terrible sores from cactus wounds. Meds have mix called blue ointment,seems to make it worse.Body lice going through whole outfit.  no Treatment for them.Last days very hot. 90 in the day.
                                                                                                                            A.C.(parkie)